Top Clicks

AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP (NYSE: AZN) and HealthCore, Inc., the health outcomes research subsidiary of WellPoint, Inc. (NYSE: WLP), announced a collaborative agreement to conduct real-world studies designed to determine how to most effectively and economically treat disease

According to a new report from the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development at Tufts University 12 to 50 percent of the drugs companies are developing, depending on the company, involved a personalized medicine approach.

The Tufts report is based on a survey of 25 companies, large and small, to which 16 companies responded, as well as interviews with representatives of 13 companies.

Relatively few drugs are now accompanied by such so-called companion diagnostic tests. They are most common in oncology. The breast cancer drug Herceptin, for instance, is given only to women whose tumors have an abundance of a protein called Her2.

According to the report Other key therapeutic areas in which personalized medicine is making headway include cardiovascular, central nervous system, and immunologic therapies, whereas personalized medicine development is just getting started for metabolic and respiratory therapies, as well as virology.

The Institute is focused on research that will accelerate IT innovation to advance personalized medicine and the delivery of safe and effective treatments and health care services to patients around the globe. OHSI will work in tandem with academic research centers, focusing on a targeted set of research areas fundamental to the R&D and health care delivery challenges facing health sciences organizations today. Research priorities currently include: artificial intelligence and semantic technology; genomic, genetic and phenotypic data analysis; data mining to support optimization of clinical trials; and predictive algorithms and other technology to advance patient safety and provide advanced decision support at the point of care.Academic institutions interested in collaborating with OHSI in these focus areas should contact OHSI representatives at Oracle http://linkd.in/bXf98c

Oracle starts Oracle Health Sciences Institute (OHSI), in partnership with Sun Labs. This is exiting news and I hope we get to see the participation of Open Source Drug Development Network (OSDD) and initiative by CSIR India earlier supported by Sun Microsystems

CombiMatrix has completed the clinical validation of the BAC array CGH based clinical microarray tests. ATScan is designed to detect known genomic copy-number variations associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder and this test is now available to physicians and consumers.

Which of the thousands of long stretches of repeated DNA in the human genome came first? And which are the duplicates the question have been answered by a team of scientists from University of Washington School of Medicine and University of California, San Diego.The research published by Evan Eichler from the University of Washington School of Medicine provide the first evolutionary history of the duplications in the human genome that are partly responsible for both disease and recent genetic innovations.

Evan Eichler has analyzed segmental duplications in the human genome and have successfully pinpointed the ancestral origin of each and identified the newly named core duplicon.

The study presents a comprehensive global analysis of the evolution of segmental duplications in the human enome. The authors identify the origin of ancestral duplication loci, regions of clustered duplicons, and evidence upporting a punctuated model of evolution.

This work marks a significant step toward a better understanding of what genomic changes paved the way for modern humans, when these duplications occurred and what the associated costs are – in terms of susceptibility to disease-causing genetic mutations.

Genomes can duplicate long stretches of DNA from one chromosome and insert the duplication in another area of the genome. The resulting segments of DNA are called segmental duplications. They are important because they hold evolutionary secrets

Finding answers to questions such as, Which set came first? What changes were innovated, when and why? What was sacrificed when an innovation took effect? What is the connection between disease and innovations within segmental duplications?, are important because researchers can then design specific medical treatments and can lead to ket discoveries in Pharmacogenomics research

It hardly a week I have wrote about acquisition and mergers , it seems the rain is noit going to stop any time soon, the latest one , to give away the home plate is Genelogic agreeing to sell its genomics division to India HQ Ocimum Biosolutionssubject to the authorization of the transaction at a special meeting of shareholders of Gene Logic.

This is a transforming event of significant strategic proportion,” said Charles L. Dimmler, III, President and Chief Executive Officer of Gene Logic.

Genelogic bought its preclinical division from TherImmune, a Gaithersburg company, in April 2003 for $51 million which was sold to Bridge Pharmaceuticalsfor $15 Million,

Gene Logic Inc said it agreed to sell its Genomics assets to Ocimum Biosolutions Ltd for $10 million in cash. Under the terms of the Ocimum sale agreement, Gene Logic retains full rights in perpetuity to utilize the existing information data bases of its former Genomics business as key elements in building its emerging drug repositioning and development business. Furthermore, the Company will retain specified assets related to molecular diagnostics and will continue to explore strategic alternatives for these assets

The sale is part of the Genelogic new strategy to focus on to build drug repositioning and development business which was decided last year.

Ocium will assume certain liabilities associated with the Genomics assets and business and will pay Gene Logic $7 million at closing and $3 million payable in a promissory note due 18 months from closing.

The purchase includes Gene Logic’s Knowledge Products business including the The BioExpress® System a continually growing genomic database of gene expression data and associated clinical information from over 18,000 human and animal tissues and cell line samples. ToxExpress® a toxicogenomics reference database.

Ocimum will continue to operate the business out of the current state-of-the-art laboratory facility of Gene Logic in Gaithersburg, Maryland.